Surprise! Surprise! Tom has returned home! But to do so, took a bit of planning. SO, I shot a message over to our long time friend Megan (friends since the 6th grade, 13yrs), and asked her what she was doing on Wednesday the 21st. Her response was, "Nothing, I'm not working." "Ok, Megan, come get Tom with me at the Vancouver airport?" "Seriously?" "Yes." "Ok!"

And so it went, I found someone with a car to help me collect Tom upon his glorious return to the United States of America.

Here we are in the parking lot of a Starbucks in Vancouver, Canada hanging out because we are an hour early.
Hello Megan!



TOM!!!!



Hey Tom, Where did you put that yellow ticket that they gave you for your checked luggage? Oh, you misplaced it. Excellent. Oh they don't have your luggage and are going to deliver it to your parents house? Excellent. Lets get out of here. Oh, by the way, you're paying for parking.



Tom's first declarative statement when he stepped out of the Vancouver International Airport?

"I detect a distinct lack of PISS in the air."

That's right Tom! You are home!



Glorious Bellingham fed Tom well at the Hawaii BBQ & Noodle House. Chinese food stuffed our guts to the brim, and Tom was as happy as a clam. Doesn't that air smell good Tom?



HOME! Don't sleep too much Tom, we got shit todo!



As you can see. Tom is home. His bike is not as of yet, and will soon arrive at the Port of Seattle withing the next few weeks.

To get the full account of what went through Tom's head in the weeks leading up to his return, please see his blog at:

Thetomreport.blogspot.com

ONWARD!!!!!!!!!!!

--Alex

__________________
NJ, NR, NBTTN

Hola once again my friends! I trust that everyone had a good holiday season, fantastic Christmas, and a kick ass New Year celebration. If you happen to celebrate something else, I hope it was kick ass too! And if things were shitty, well, write me an email, and I'll write you one back. (I haven't forgotten about you N8!)

So, like always, I have been rifling through the ADVrider website, and keeping my eye open on things, and buying and selling, and jostling funds around and making things happen. Since I have been home I have:

1) Replaced the riding gear that I sold in Argentina, thanks to the Fleamarket and Ebay.
2) Renewed my registration on my '95 BMW K75
3) Sold my miscellaneous gear and extra parts I had lying around, all to fellow inmates.
4) Sold my '06 DR650 that I had in the garage, to a fellow inmate.
5) Bought a Moto-Mule Trailer (moto-mule a cargo trailer to pull behind your dual sport motorcycle - ADVrider), and arranged to have it shipped to my the pick up location of my soon to be, new to me, fully farkled, 2009 DR650 in Mobile, Alambama. (Bought from an inmate.)
6) Sold the extra wheels that came with my bike, to a fellow inmate
7) Bought a new Canon G12 Camera (on ebay) to replace the G11 I sold to Steve the Aussie in Argentina. (Gotta have a decent camera for the Ride Report, and this one can take 720p HD videos, sweet)
8) Picked up Tom Reuter at the airport.
9) Retrieved my '76 Suzuki TS400 from my friends house
10) Enjoyed Christmas and New Year festivities
11) Spent a LOT of time with my fantastically wonderful, super hot girlfriend Kristi.

(Not in any particular order of course.

SO, now you see, I have a few things left to do.

I still need to:

1) Plan my route from Mobile, Alabama to Lake Stevens, Washington
2) Contact all of you ever faithful ADV inmates that have offered me a place to stay, wether it be on your couch or in a bed, or on the floor.
3) Buy a plane ticket to Mobile, Alamaba
4) Ride my new to me motorcycle back home, covering 8-10 different states and anywhere from 3,000-5,000k miles.
5) Get a job.


SO,

Planned date of departure from Seattle International Airport is January 19th, landing in Mobile, Alabama. That give me 15 days to get my shit together. Sounds like I have about 13 days to screw off in the meantime!

Stay tuned amigos!

Onward!

--Alex

__________________
NJ, NR, NBTTN

Well, today, the sun was shining and the roads were dry. Around 9:30am, my Mom sent me a message saying that I should take her for a ride down the Snohomish River Road to a familiar place called Skydive Snohomish.

I got the message around noon, and inside of an hour, I was back at the house, and we were getting ready to go. The roads were still dry, and it wa s49* F outside (18* C). AWESOME.



Mom picked a good day for a ride. A couple weeks ago, it looked a bit more like this outside .



Well, we went cruising down the county roads, speed limits of 35-40mph, in a big loop that took us out of town, into the next town, into the next town (almost) and back home a different way. It was great, my Mom really enjoyed it, and I had a good time! For 2 up riding, my BMW K75 is a bit nicer to it's rider/passenger than the average DR650.



It was a kick ass day!

Thanks MOM!

--Alex

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NJ, NR, NBTTN